The invention relates to high capacity storage devices as used in computer systems.
A major application lies in solid-state recorders, that are tending to replace electromagnetic recorders, given the limitations thereof and the appearance of highly integrated storage components, exceeding 1 Mbits for static memory and 4 Mbits for dynamic memory.
There are numerous applications in which the space occupied must be as small as possible. Often, it is also desirable to reduce weight for a given capacity. This applies in particular for equipments designed for space vehicles and satellites.
Proposals have already been made (EP-A-O 489 643) to reduce the volume and the weight of a semiconductor memory device by stacking elongated components having their outputs located at their ends, and by disposing pairs of superposed components in a crossed configuration. By crossing two superposed components, it is possible to gain access to their outputs in order to solder the connection wires thereto.
However, large capacity memory components or "chips" (4 Mbits and above) that are available or have been announced are often provided with output terminals that are not disposed at their ends, but that are disposed over the entire margin of a major facet, or even along the middle axis which is parallel to the longer side of a major facet. And even when the terminals are at the ends, the ratio between the length and the width of such components is often insufficient to gain easy access to their output terminals by crossing the components.
A component is also known (WO-A-91 00683) in which the major fraction of the linking leads are placed elsewhere than over the active zone, thereby requiring considerable semiconductor area and bulk.